Athletics Australia has today confirmed that it will significantly increase its online event broadcasts in 2015 by live streaming all eight events of the 2015 Australian Athletics Tour, as well as the 2015 Australian Athletics Championships and the 2015 Australian Junior Athletics Championships through its YouTube channel ‘AthsAust’.
After successfully live streaming five events in 2014, Athletics Australia has made the decision to invest in significantly expanded online coverage in 2015 to ensure broader free access than ever before to domestic athletics events for Australian sports fans.
In all, over 70 hours of live coverage of the Australian athletics season will be broadcast live and free. In addition to the live broadcast of meets, video highlights will also be posted after each major event.
Athletics Australia President David Grace QC said the move to invest more heavily in online coverage of the sport rather than traditional broadcast media was a strategic decision and one which had the wide support of athletics community.
“We were delighted with the support that our live streams of the 2014 Australian Athletics Tour received and, after listening to feedback from the athletics family, we have made a significant investment in broadening our online broadcasts in 2015,” Grace said.
“This will be the first time that every major athletics meet in Australia will be broadcast for the public to watch free of charge across multiple platforms and it will significantly improve the accessibility of our sport. With the Australian Athletics Tour becoming a truly national event with the addition of meets in South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT in 2015, it also provides us with a nationally broadcast product that has greater capacity to engage our audiences as fans can follow the action across the progression of the Tour.”
The broadcasts will be hosted by popular Australian athletics presenters Dave Robertson andSilas Moss (also known as ‘Mossy and Robbo’), whose coverage of the 2014 Australian Athletics Tour and the Australian athletics team at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games was widely acclaimed by the athletics community.
Athletics Australia’s coverage of the 2015 Australian Athletics Tour will commence on Sunday 25 January with a broadcast of the Tour’s opening meet from Hobart, the Briggs Athletics Classic.
Athletics Australia will also broadcast the Australian Athletics Tour preliminary meets from Newcastle (31 January), Canberra (7 February), Perth (14 February), Adelaide (21 February) and Brisbane (7 March) as well as the two Finals in Sydney (14 March) and Melbourne (21 March).
Live coverage of the 2015 Australian Athletics Championship will run over three days from Brisbane, from 27 – 29 March, and there will be four days of coverage of the 2015 Australian Junior Athletics Championships from Sydney from 12 – 15 March. Athletics Australia is teaming with VPA Productions to broadcast the meets online.
The full live schedule is below.
2015 Live Streaming Schedule
Sunday 25 January – Australian Athletics Tour – Hobart
Saturday 31 January – Australian Athletics Tour – Newcastle
Saturday 7 February – Australian Athletics Tour – Canberra
Saturday 14 February – Australian Athletics Tour – Perth
Saturday 21 January – Australian Athletics Tour – Adelaide
Saturday 7 March – Australian Athletics Tour – Brisbane
Thursday 12 March – 2015 Australian Junior Athletics Championships (Day 2) – Sydney
Friday 13 March – 2015 Australian Junior Athletics Championships (Day 3) – Sydney
Saturday 14 March – 2015 Australian Junior Athletics Championships (Day 4) – Sydney
Saturday 14 March – Australian Athletics Tour FINAL – Sydney
Sunday 15 March – 2015 Australian Junior Athletics Championships (Day 5) – Sydney
Saturday 21 March – Australian Athletics Tour FINAL – IAAF Melbourne World Challenge
Friday 27 March – 2015 Australian Junior Athletics Championships (Day 2) – Brisbane
Saturday 28 March – 2015 Australian Junior Athletics Championships (Day 3) – Brisbane
Sunday 29 March – 2015 Australian Junior Athletics Championships (Day 4) – Brisbane
